Paying for electricity

[jscho84233]

Hi all,

Got a queistion: How do TOCs (or indeed FOCs) pay for the electricity their trains get from the OHLE or 3rd rail?

I thought it would be in the track access charge, or maybe they pay a standing charge per annum, but then that wouldn't account for the higher usage from a rammed train compared to an empty one. Do the trains have some sort of electricity meter?

Thanks!

 

[ainsworth74]

It varies the railway is moving towards metered charging so that TOCs only pay for what they actually use, but traditionally the TOCs and Network Rail pretty much agree between themselves how much electricity they are likely to use and agree a charge for it. But as you might imagine there are times when a TOC uses more so is underpaying and other occasions where they might use less so are overpaying, hence the move to metering to ensure that everyone is paying and being paid the correct amount.

 

[jscho84233]

Oh right. So on the trains that are metered, is that similar to a domestic meter that has to be read from time to time, or is the usage data transmitted to Network Rail, or maybe transmitted with the rest of the nightly engineering data to the TOCs and then forwarded?

 

[dangie]

This is a cracking question. Wish I'd thought of it..!! All sort of things are popping into my head... Meter readers... Coin operated... Economy 7...

 

[jscho84233]

As I was typing I was imagining the train grinding to a halt and guard going through asking if anyone had 50p for the meter...

 

[swt_passenger]

Technical paper here on how 390s are metered:

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse... 2010/vt-ec4t-390 technical file issue 1b.pdf

 

[Bald Rick]

Before train metering, all traction electriity was effectively passed through to the TOCs by NR, divided up between TOCs on shared routes very broadly by train miles.

With on train metering, many TOCS now have accurate data for what they use, so the pay for that, with a small add on for losses in transmission from feeder station to pantograph.

 

[jscho84233]

Thanks for the answers, guys, very informative. The link to the technical paper was great, thanks swt!

 

[deltic1989]

As I was typing I was imagining the train grinding to a halt and guard going through asking if anyone had 50p for the meter...

Or if anyone could nip to the newsagents and put a tenner on the key